Archive for the ‘What's for Dinner?? A look at the food chain’ Category

Health Buzz: Processed Foods Recalled Over Salmonella Contamination – US News and World Report

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Health Buzz: Processed Foods Recalled Over Salmonella Contamination – US News and World Report.

Unbiased Study of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

It seems that the Genetically altered (GM) corn from Monsanto causes disturbances in kidney function(male rats) and liver functions (female rats).

Monsanto had dismissed the same results in their own testing, due to the age of rats. This non-biased, scientific testing eliminated that, and other possibilities – stating that toxicity was a factor.

The GM corn varieties tested are in the food supply and feed supply of billions of people and animals.

Below is an excerpt showing which 3 GM corns were tested, and what their makeup is. Please note that they are altered to become tolerant to herbicide and insecticides (the herbicide and insecticides can be sprayed liberally on the GM corn without harming the corn itself):

” rats fed three main commercialized genetically modified (GM) maize (NK 603, MON 810, MON 863), which are present in food and feed in the world. NK 603 has been modified to be tolerant to the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup and thus contains residues of this formulation. MON 810 and MON 863 are engineered to synthesize two different Bt toxins used as insecticides.”

You may read (and I suggest you read) the entire study on the website of the International Journal of Biological Sciences below:

A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health.

FDA Panel OK’s Statins in Healthy People – ABC News

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

FDA Panel OK’s Statins in Healthy People – ABC News.

Once again, the federal government, under the guise of the FDA, is telling the “heatlhy people” (men over 50 =, women over 60 that do not have a history of heart disease) to take Statins – and not just any statin – but Crestor – to prevent heart attacks.

It’s bad enough that many people have to take medications due to the inability of doctors to tell their patients “No, don’t eat that” or “no don’t drink or smoke that”.  It’s even worse when none of the doctors have any background or education in nutrition. But the worst thing that they could do is put healthy people on serious medications.

Read the article and weep…

–Pat

Kellogg Plant Flood Triggers Eggo Waffle Shortage Correct – Bloomberg.com

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Personally, my family and I are not affected by the “eggo shortage”.

I can, however,  sympathize with those that are locked into an industrialized food system that they must rely upon for their daily sustenance.

We choose not to be – as much as possible. We do have to purchase things, but we try to purchase our wheat berries in bulk and always replenish while we still have ample supply on hand.
Please note that anyone can make waffles with a few staple ingredients – they do need a waffle iron, but there are many types available – one could probably purchase one for the price of 1 month’s supply of Eggo waffles. After that the basic flour, salt, eggs, milk, butter, baking powder is about all you need for a “basic” waffle recipe.

I find it shocking that the country that celebrates “Independence Day” every July is the most “dependent” country in the world.

–Pat

Read about the shortage below.

Kellogg Plant Flood Triggers Eggo Waffle Shortage Correct – Bloomberg.com.

Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws – NYTimes.com

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

So, E.coli is still leaking into the food system due to poor (or maybe no) processing plant inspections.

Read the article (link below) and take note that the young lady that had been a dance instructor by trade is now paralyzed from the waist down.All from eating a hamburger.

Also note that the processing plant in South Dakota “treats” the meat filler they make with Ammonia to kill E.coli.

Did you get that??? Ammonia!!! They will poison us with ammonia and still say that the food is “safe” because they took “steps” to prevent E.coli…

And the FDA and USDA think that this is an ok process.

Eat fresh, eat local. Vote with your dollars – buy from a local farmer that you know and trust.

Read the full article here.

Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws – NYTimes.com.

“Organic” ultra-pasteurized milk

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

We were at Sam’s Club last night picking up a few items.
As we were heading for the register, we saw a display of “organic” ultra-pasteurized chocolate milk on display… in the aisle! Not in a refrigerated case, but stacked at the end of one of the aisles.

Now if that won’t turn your head, nothing will. Milk that does NOT have to be stored in a refrigerator. And of course, the milk industry would try to tell you that it is still good for you. What, may I ask, is still in it that would be GOOD for you???

We used this as an object lesson for our boys.
“See that chocolate milk?”
“Yes.”
“Is it refrigerated?”
“No.”
“What do we do with the milk after we milk the goats?”
“Put it in the freezer to chill it, then in the fridge.”
“Do you think that chocolate milk is healthful, or has anything good for you in it?”
“No”.
“Why not?”
“they had to kill everything in it, if it can be stored on the shelf, or it would go bad.”

‘Nuff said

– Pat

Test tube meat

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

A recent CNN article states that a company called “New Harvest” plans to take eggs harvested from animals killed in slaughterhouses, fertilize them, place them in test tubes with nutrient solution and grow “meat” in huge steel vats from the embryos.

“Cultured meat would have a lot of advantages,” said Jason Matheny of New Harvest. “We could precisely control the amount of fat in meat. We could make ground beef with an ideal fatty acid ratio — a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them.”

So, instead of raising chickens, pigs and cattle in a conventional way, this company recommends using test tubes for a more “controlled environment”.

Environmentalists are happy, thinking that there would be no need to rip out rain forest to grow more food, and no more chickens in pens and the elimination of inhumane conditions for all animals – but one environmental scientist is looking at it a bit more critically – he says “”Animal cells do not manufacture protein out of wishes and moonbeams. There will be a feedstock, likely based mostly on soy and corn to balance the protein content just like animal feed today. It will be heavily chemically processed to break it down into a form muscle cells can use. There will be waste from this process which will be chemically similar to the waste produced by animal digestion. The metabolic processes of the tank meat will also produce waste which will be essentially identical to the waste produced by metabolism in an intact animal.”

So, there will still need to be food grown, waste to deal with, and the whole “laboratory-sterile” concept goes out the window! And don’t think they will use organic feed – the chemical revolution made grain production so much easier, so science will continue to use science as opposed to a natural solution.

Should we really be messing with the way the natural system works? Isn’t that how we got the tainted food system that is killing people in the first place?

– Pat

Martin Feldstein: ObamaCare Is All About Rationing – WSJ.com

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

With the potential implementation of government mandated health care, will your treatments be rejected by the health czar as depicted in the article below about rationed health care?

How can we fight this, if it is passed?

By eating fresh, healthful, locally produced, nutritious foods grown and raised by a local farmer that you know.

I have had different reactions from people about eating healthy, and knowing where our food supply comes from.  Responses such as “I prefer to buy my meat in styrofoam packages at the store” or “I don’t want to know where it comes from” are not only silly, they are downright illogical, from a health-perspective.

Logically speaking, we are, in a sense, what we eat. Should we get our food from someone we know, and have relationship with? Someone that cares enough about what they eat, to go to the great length and effort to grow it themselves? Or, should we get our foods from the supermarket that has the produce trucked in from out of state, or out of the country, saving money on the wholesale pricing that comes about on the backs of illegal aliens working the fields, and as a result of farmers spraying chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides on the foods? Or animals standing knee-deep in their own waste, being shot with antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to get through the slaughter house, finally, to wind up on your table?  How are we saving money when we have to go to the doctor because our immune systems are weakened by the constant bombardment of our bodies by those same chemicals, hormones, antibiotics and eating meat from sick animals? And how much nutritional value will we get from fruits and vegetables picked before they are ripe, and in some cases, gassed to promote “fast ripening”?

I think we should all reconsider the logic behind knowing where our food comes from – before the big ag industry swallows up all of the small farmers producing real foods – and we are forced into a health care that would prefer to euthanize us before spending money on c0stly treatments that are “unjustified” based on the Health Czar’s calculations?

It’s time we woke up from the “American dream” as purported by the infomercials and took “health care” into our own hands – by feeding our bodies as God had intended in the garden – with nutritious, fresh, untainted foods.

Read this article on the health care that YOUR government wants for YOU!

Martin Feldstein: ObamaCare Is All About Rationing – WSJ.com.

USDA recalls 800,000 pounds of beef

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Beef that is contaminated with the Salmonella bacteria has been found in Newport, Colorado, and traced back to the Beef Packers Incorporated, in California.

Read the story here:

www.healthnews.com/alerts-outbreaks/usda-announces-ground-beef-product-recall-california-company-3541.html

Once again, why do American consumers trust the USDA or the food industry?

–Pat

Documentary Film – Must See!!!

Friday, June 12th, 2009

If any of you have been following my blog, you know that I write about the USDA and FDA, corporate “Big Ag” companies, and how they are not our allies or great protectors of the food chain..

I subscribe to different feeds that bring food safety and nutritional news to my inbox, so that I can keep all of you updated. One of those (and I am sure I have told some of you about this) is called The Center for Food Safety. They have teamed up with a film maker, and together have produced a film that should be seen by anyone that eats food – It is called “Food, Inc.”

“Food Inc.” premiers today, June 12th in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, followed by the nationwide release on June 19th.

The film reports the abusive persecution and, in other cases, prosecution of farmers by Monsanto as it tries to force its genetically altered food products into the mainstream food industry.
It has interviews with such innovative farmers as Joe Salatin (Polyface Farm) and Gary Hershberg of Storyfields. There are also interviews with Journalist and author, Michael Pollan (”In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivores Dilemma”) and Eric Schlosser (Author of “Fast Food Nation”).

It also exposes the role that the FDA and USDA play in promoting a Corporate-run Industrialized Agriculture model – A failing model that has caused a new strain of E. Coli that affects over 73,000 people per year, an unprecedented escalation of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and childhood obesity – reaching epidemic proportions in our society.
I have affectionately called this “Poison for Profits” for a couple of years now…

This is a MUST SEE film!

For more information go to this link:

http://www.foodincmovie.com/index.php

To your health,

–Pat